Arabidopsis thaliana AP2-EREBP Family

Description

Riechmann & Meyerowitz. 1998: AP2 (APETALA2) and EREBPs (ethylene-responsive element binding proteins) are the prototypic members of a family of transcription factors unique to plants, whose distinguishing characteristic is that they contain the so-called AP2 DNA-binding domain. AP2/ REBP genes form a large multigene family, and they play a variety of roles throughout the plant life cycle: from being key regulators of several developmental processes, like floral organ identity determination or control of leaf epidermal cell identity, to forming part of the mechanisms used by plants to respond to various types of biotic and environmental stress.

Shigyo et al. 2006: AP2/EREBP genes are divided into two subfamilies: AP2 genes with two AP2 domains and EREBP genes with a single AP2/ERF (Ethylene Responsive Element Binding Factor) domain. Expressions of AP2-like genes, including AP2, in Arabidopsis thaliana are regulated by the microRNA miR172. We found that the target site of miR172 is significantly conserved in gymnosperm AP2 homologs, suggesting that regulatory mechanisms of gene expression using microRNA have been conserved over the three hundred million years since the divergence of gymnosperm and flowering plant lineages.

Benchmark against A. thaliana

The Sensitivity and Positive Predictive Value (PPV) were assessed for this family. The data reported by Feng et al. 2005 for A. thaliana were taken as gold standard.

The gold standard reported 147 members for this family, 146 of which are present in ArabTFDB, giving a PPV of 1.00. One additional member not present in ArabTFDB might be a false negative, giving a Sensitivity of 0.99.